2018 – A Year In Review

December 31st… It’s my eldest daughter’s birthday. She wants everyone to know it’s her birthday, and she’s turning six. She also learned how to earn money this year, and why it’s important – So she can buy food. Long story short, she went to school one morning after refusing to eat any food I would offer her, knowing full well the school was serving breakfast, albeit for $1. My daughter happily ate some plain toast (yes, plain toast for $1! don’t get me started) and when she arrived home, mom saw the $1 receipt in her lunch box instructing me to pay up. Now, I don’t judge how French Quebeckers raise their kids but this mom is not ‘un guichet automatique’ aka GAB or ATM as it is known in the rest of the world. I gently explained to my daughter that things cost money and that I wasn’t going to pay for this bill because I had already spent all my money at Costco 😉 (technically true, I buy a lot of food). I told her that in order to pay for it, she would have to earn $1 through work. When dad got home, she did a handful of kid sized chores for 25¢ each and brought the money back to school the next day. The following week I asked if she had any money left in her purse and she said no… she bought more $1 toast at school. So, moral of the story is… I taught my kid how to earn money but not how to spend it wisely. That will be my task for next year.

In other news…

I made one last purchase this year. On December 5th I purchased $1140.88 minus $5.31 in fees of Transalta Renewables (RNW), 102 shares for $11.19 each. We all know what happened several days later in the Canadian and American markets. However, I am still pleased with the dividends this company pays. This purchase should add $7.98 per month in dividend income for a total monthly dividend of $14.65 (Whoot! Whoot!). It is also crazy to think that the extra $140.88 was from dividends sitting in my cash account!

So, how did I fair this year? Drum roll please!!…..

Well, I hit my annual dividend goal of $750! As of December 31st, this stay-at-home mom brought in $1008.69 in dividends. I surpassed $1000! The good news is I kept my fees below 2%, and yet I missed making 2 purchases. One in October and another in November. However, I’m not disappointed about missing these purchases since prices have come down since then increasing my purchasing power momentarily.

A few months ago on a fellow dividend blogger’s site (I can’t remember the name! If you know the name comment below so I can credit them), he broke down his dividends into an hourly wage. I thought this was ingenious. Although I don’t receive an hourly wage (solely the Canadian and Quebec Child Benefit – which fluctuates with each tax season), I still work pretty darn hard. So, if I worked 40 hours a week for 48 weeks of the year (2 weeks off in summer and 2 weeks off at Christmas), I would be working 1920 hours per year. So, $1008.69 dividend by 1920 hours = 0.52¢ per hour (roughly). Almost the equivalent to the American minimum wage of the 1940s. Hopefully, next year I can give myself another hourly pay increase that will propel me into the 1960s!

Here is something else you might find interesting…

My 7 year old made $105.52 in annual dividends.My 5 year old made $48.69 in annual dividends.My 3 year old made $18.83 in annual dividends.My 1 year old made $12.15 in annual dividends.

My newest baby is 2 weeks old as of today! I should be starting his first DRIP in the coming months, it will most likely be a share of BMO like his siblings.

Also, I only contributed $50 in optional cash purchases to each of their accounts this year. However, pretty much since my oldest got his first share as a newborn he has had fairly consistent annual dividend increases.

So, that’s it for this year. I still need to think about 2019. There are a lot of details to go over in terms of how much I should contribute and competing priorities. As of January 1st my husband is officially incorporated as a “Société” and has started his paternity leave, we are looking at putting our eldest back into some much needed therapy and my parents estate will be officially complete sometime this coming year.

Congrats on delivering the new baby! Hopefully, you and baby are doing well.
I can only imagine the grocery shopping you’ll need to do as the kids get older. 😀
Terrific news on crossing that $1K mark for yearly dividends, too. Keep up the outstanding efforts.
Great to see all the kids are dividend growth investors like you.
Wishing you and your family a wonderful 2019 with regard to investing, and life in general.